IBM ran a good commercial a while back where some cops were walking around a vacant server room while a PHB-type was explaining that all the servers had been stolen. Then the IT guy walks in and says, that they were not stolen but replaced with one linux server. The best part was as the commercial closed, one detective looks at the other and says: "What's a server?" - Classic:)
I know this will get modded troll, but the stupidity of the general public is the biggest problem. I mean, people in FL couldn't figure out the chad ballot system... How in the world do we expect them to figure out an electronic system? Security IMHO is really a close number two problem compared to this.
It really comes as no surprise that music during concerts is altered to some extent. Most musicians are marketed not for their true musical talent, but for their attractiveness, or whatever other marketable features the record companies can exploit.
I am reading the threads above and I find it really amusing that everyone I have read so far mentions a bad experience (or a geek-BO joke). It seems many people believe creatine will just make you bigger. I am just as much as a geek as everyone here, but I grew up very athletic and all of my childhood friends have grown up to become Physical Therapists, Physical Trainers, etc. And, since I finished college (where I was captain of the wrestling team [which makes it hard for people to believe I am a geek]), I have been keeping in decent shape so that I can get the ladies.
Creatine does not provide strength the way steroids do, if you are looking for that kind of work out, I would suggest Andro supplements. IIRC, this is what Mark Maquire was taking that got him in trouble. The problem with Andro is that even though it is legal it has the same side effects as typical anabolic steroids (acne, shrinking testicles, etc.).
Creatine is a complex amino acid that gets called upon as your fast twitch muscle fibers get closer to failure. For people who lift, these are the portion of the muscle that will grow if exercised properly. Your muscle fibers are torn or damaged during the workout, and rebuilt over the next few days. Your body will re-build these muscles much stronger than before, and in most cases, larger than before. The critical phase of the workout is the tearing of the fibers. When your body is properly loaded with creatine, it will allow you to go a little further than normally possible to tear down more than normal, which is when you will benefit the most. Creatine is a tricky supplement though, it is difficult to get your body to deliver it on ingestion. I've heard many times that insulin has something to do with it and most supplements suggest ingesting it with a natural fruit drink (grape juice, etc.). and it also suggests a loading phase for a week where you are taking a ton of the stuff.
I have used creatine off and on for quite a while, and I can say that my strength is slightly improved during periods when taking it, but if you are looking for size, the protein supplements are more important. The BO part is hard for me to understand, since people are suggested to take creatine about 30 minutes before your workout. Doesn't everyone shower after their workout? This has always been my routine, maybe that's why I have never heard of the BO. To me the bigger problem has always been that protein rich foods, as well as the protein supplements, make your breath smell and give you gas.
I guess what I am saying is that there is no easy way to get fit and look good. And I also understand that it just isn't a priority to everyone. So be it, but don't give a half-assed try to some supplement and then bitch because it didn't work the way you wanted. The first thing people need to learn is that you need to get a good workout above all else. These supplements only work if you are already getting a good workout without them, they do not turn a bad workout into a good one, they only turn a good workout into a better one.
You're right... When I took a quick look at the number, I saw ten thousand, which seemed realistic enough that I just went ahead and posted it. Taking a second look, I see that it is one hundred thousand, which is ridiculously high. Sorry about that, and thanks for pointing it out without a serious flaming;)
Using your updated command, I see that on a testing machine, there are about 14,000 packages available. For this little test to be fair, we need a BSD person to do something similar. I still believe the notion of my original post is correct though. The amount of available software is the biggest factor in most choices these days.
There are many reasons why BSD should be ahead of the game, but unfortunately it is not. I wish I had some real numbers, but I remember having one of my BSD zealot friends run a command and pipe it to wc to see how many packages were available in the BSD ports tree. At that time there was about 2,000. I was impressed, until:
I think this is what really makes the case for linux. It is sort of a Catch-22, there is more software available for linux, so more software is created for linux.
The Corporate Fallout Detector reads barcodes off of consumer products, and makes a noise similar to a gieger counter of varying intensity based on the social or environmental record of the company that produces the product.
I came up with the numbers by correlating several online bardcode databases with a pollution database and a corporate ethics database. Of course the data produced by this approach is subjective and inaccurate at times, but that's part of why I built it: It's difficult for consumers trace corporate actions through the maze of corporate ownership, and find who is really responsible. This helps create an environment where consumers have difficulty making informed purchasing decisions.... without the use of "special tools"...
The case is made from a discarded steel computer case, cut on a waterjet cutter and bent with a metal brake. Inside is a SaJe microcontroller and a Wasp barcode scanner.
Click on the thumbnails at left for larger images.
</article text>
So they loose credibility becuase they've worked in the industry?
You're right, this was an unnecessary shot at guys who work in the telcom industry. I am sorry, because I know there are many highly skilled people employed by these companies. I am only bitter because of a few bad experiences, and I should not have attacked everyone.
You rant this info like you're an insider hotshot, but then imply that all insiders are dishonest!
Maybe you misread my comment, I only implied that the executives are dishonest. I don't think that is an unfair thing to imply. Think MCI, Enron, etc. if you think that Utilities executives are honest.
What are YOUR qualifications?
Who cares? I mean really, it is up to you to believe this. Even if I cut/pasted my resume into this reply, I am sure you would nitpick it also. If you think I am unqualified, big deal, this is a forum, not a courtroom. If it was a courtroom, this would be hearsay anyways... However, the person that told me this story did so in confidence, so it might jeopardize his employment with one of the major Baby Bells.
Why should we beleive anything you're telling us, and don't tell me that its an opinion, because thats a "consperacy theory"/"industrial thriller", not a humble opinion.
As I mentioned before, you don't have to... But, if you don't believe this story, just do a few google searches on these topics. I'm sure that you'll find many other similar stories of corporate dishonesty and corruption. If I had the time, I'd look through the past stories on slashdot and find the one that shows how the telecoms greased the FCC to get out of major trouble. Unfortunately, I can't remember the details of the story.
PS. It is 'conspiracy' and 'believe', preview is an amazing thing.
Well, you shouldn't have mentioned that you are a former telcom employee. You lost a lot of credibility with that statement.
First off, I want to clear up a few things about equipment costs that telcoms hide behind. They use this as their way to jack up the rates, because after salary and wage expenses, they really don't have much reason to charge a monthly fee to their customers, so they claim to be constantly upgrading their equipment. The telcoms are sneaky though, equipment works its way from the largest areas down to the rural areas so that they are re-using the same equipment where it is needed, and everyone gets an upgrade. Sounds good right!? WRONG
The trick is how it goes from one CO to another. Each CO liquidates its old equipment to a holding company for pennies on the dollar. The holding company is usually a seperate entity whose main stakeholders are executives at the telco. The holding company then offers the equipment back to the next CO for its *original* price!!! Think of how much money is generated when just one upgrade works its way through the COs in an area. The telco has had to re-purchase the same equipment over and over again, so then they go to the local PUCO (public utilities commission) and ask if they can raise the price since the upgrade cost so much. When they get it approved it is a double win for them, they are getting more from their residual monthly fee, and they have made an ass-load of cash from their holding company entity.
For Public Utilities, it is all about how to work funny-money through the system, they don't have to worry about pleasing the customer since their is no competition. If you really think that your local telco is out to please/help you, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell ya;).
This isn't bait and switch... That is when you advertise one thing at a great deal, but then conveniently don't have any of that item in stock when the customers arrive. This was a common practice of Sun TV during the 90s.
Sometimes I wonder why this 'Anonymous Coward' guy is still allowed to post, he is obviously an idiot, and he posts so much!
The article does say Until now, the Japanese government has relied on expensive large-scale computers for its backbone system.
I would say that it is a fair assumption that it wasn't windows... I mean, when have you known of a 'large-scale' 'backbone' windows system? My guess is that it was probably some [Sun|HP|SGI] based iron running [SAP|PeopleSoft|Oracle]... In which case it will be easy to decrease costs. Moving to M$ would have decreased costs too if I am right, but at any rate, at the risk of sounding redundant this is just another case that can be pointed to when discussing a move to linux.
As an end user of successful open source software, I would have to say that the best way to get feedback on the success of your project is through an X-users mailing list where X is your project. It seems to me that the more activity in a mailing list usually indicates the size/success of a project. I have spent time in the past simply lurking on a mailing list for a while for products that I am evaluating, and in other cases, I join the mailing list to lurk right away on desktop software that I am not already familiar with. It is the best measure thusfar that I have found.
Support isn't the only thing you pay for here. I went to a small conference hosted by IBM and RH where they showcased AS and AW. Basically, you get a stable system that will change very little over time. This might not seem like a big deal, but at large organizations like where I work, even the smallest library changes have to be QE'd internally before we can install updates into production. This becomes a real cost monger when you think about QE dealing with our own changes as well as the changes that the open source world makes to its software.
Here, we have a habit of only testing and installing security related fixes. This minimizes the QE workload, but under this model, products get EOL'd pretty quick and then no more support is available. You can end up with an outdated RH system pretty quick. The Advanced series of their software allows us to develop and deploy a system that we know will be supported for a given amount of time, and that the changes made from RH will minor, thus requiring less QE time on our part etc. For our organization, this clearly makes a good case to replace some of our big iron from Sun.
This is just about the dumbest post I have seen in let's see... hmm... EVER!!!!
Comparing ES server at $800 to a 5 CAL copy of Win2k Server is like saying the following:
So what about that $500 Mercedes, my schwinn only cost me $400.
I am sure that any idiot making the above remark would be teased for the rest of his life about his stupidity for passing up such a good deal to get sodomized on another.
You know... You could fix this kind of situation yourself. If you set up a real DNS zone, AOL would have no way of knowing you aren't running a legitimate mailserver. Shell out a few bucks to get a name, then spend a day or two figuring out BIND (or worse WinNT DNS), then viola! You will be doing it correctly!! And who would have thought, when you do it right, ISPs will honor it!
Backdoor in College Loan management software
on
Do You Write Backdoors?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Here is something to think about, at my last job, we ran a very popular piece of software that is used to track and manage student loans for our financial aid department. One of our financial aid reps was having problems with her peecee and I sent out one of our IT support guys who was a full time student and part-time employee. He ended up calling the support desk for the piece of software in question and the rep gave him a backdoor account that was full access right over the phone. Luckily for me, the kid was honest and came back and told us about it. We all had a laugh that such an important piece of software could be compromised so easily and the support rep didn't even think twice about giving info on the backdoor to a student. Just to be safe, I periodically checked that student's account and made sure no phony changes were made. The more I thought about it, the more paranoid I became. I talked to my boss (the IT Director at the college) and found out that we really didn't have any choice in the matter, that piece of software was the only one like it. Thankfully, I don't work there any more, and I don't think the problem was ever exploited, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ever read about it. I won't divulge the information about the backdoor, but I will say that the software in question is called WhizKid and there may be college employees here on Slashdot that are familiar with it.
Slashdot Mirror
IBM ran a good commercial a while back where some cops were walking around a vacant server room while a PHB-type was explaining that all the servers had been stolen. Then the IT guy walks in and says, that they were not stolen but replaced with one linux server. The best part was as the commercial closed, one detective looks at the other and says: "What's a server?" - Classic :)
I know this will get modded troll, but the stupidity of the general public is the biggest problem. I mean, people in FL couldn't figure out the chad ballot system... How in the world do we expect them to figure out an electronic system? Security IMHO is really a close number two problem compared to this.
seems to me though that most musicians playing even moderately sized venues keeps multiple guitars on hand.
It really comes as no surprise that music during concerts is altered to some extent. Most musicians are marketed not for their true musical talent, but for their attractiveness, or whatever other marketable features the record companies can exploit.
I am reading the threads above and I find it really amusing that everyone I have read so far mentions a bad experience (or a geek-BO joke). It seems many people believe creatine will just make you bigger. I am just as much as a geek as everyone here, but I grew up very athletic and all of my childhood friends have grown up to become Physical Therapists, Physical Trainers, etc. And, since I finished college (where I was captain of the wrestling team [which makes it hard for people to believe I am a geek]), I have been keeping in decent shape so that I can get the ladies.
/W
Creatine does not provide strength the way steroids do, if you are looking for that kind of work out, I would suggest Andro supplements. IIRC, this is what Mark Maquire was taking that got him in trouble. The problem with Andro is that even though it is legal it has the same side effects as typical anabolic steroids (acne, shrinking testicles, etc.).
Creatine is a complex amino acid that gets called upon as your fast twitch muscle fibers get closer to failure. For people who lift, these are the portion of the muscle that will grow if exercised properly. Your muscle fibers are torn or damaged during the workout, and rebuilt over the next few days. Your body will re-build these muscles much stronger than before, and in most cases, larger than before. The critical phase of the workout is the tearing of the fibers. When your body is properly loaded with creatine, it will allow you to go a little further than normally possible to tear down more than normal, which is when you will benefit the most. Creatine is a tricky supplement though, it is difficult to get your body to deliver it on ingestion. I've heard many times that insulin has something to do with it and most supplements suggest ingesting it with a natural fruit drink (grape juice, etc.). and it also suggests a loading phase for a week where you are taking a ton of the stuff.
I have used creatine off and on for quite a while, and I can say that my strength is slightly improved during periods when taking it, but if you are looking for size, the protein supplements are more important. The BO part is hard for me to understand, since people are suggested to take creatine about 30 minutes before your workout. Doesn't everyone shower after their workout? This has always been my routine, maybe that's why I have never heard of the BO. To me the bigger problem has always been that protein rich foods, as well as the protein supplements, make your breath smell and give you gas.
I guess what I am saying is that there is no easy way to get fit and look good. And I also understand that it just isn't a priority to everyone. So be it, but don't give a half-assed try to some supplement and then bitch because it didn't work the way you wanted. The first thing people need to learn is that you need to get a good workout above all else. These supplements only work if you are already getting a good workout without them, they do not turn a bad workout into a good one, they only turn a good workout into a better one.
You're right... When I took a quick look at the number, I saw ten thousand, which seemed realistic enough that I just went ahead and posted it. Taking a second look, I see that it is one hundred thousand, which is ridiculously high. Sorry about that, and thanks for pointing it out without a serious flaming ;)
Using your updated command, I see that on a testing machine, there are about 14,000 packages available. For this little test to be fair, we need a BSD person to do something similar. I still believe the notion of my original post is correct though. The amount of available software is the biggest factor in most choices these days.
Cheers!
There are many reasons why BSD should be ahead of the game, but unfortunately it is not. I wish I had some real numbers, but I remember having one of my BSD zealot friends run a command and pipe it to wc to see how many packages were available in the BSD ports tree. At that time there was about 2,000. I was impressed, until:
[wawannem@weswlinux]:/home/wawannem
$ apt-cache dump | wc -l
100543
I think this is what really makes the case for linux. It is sort of a Catch-22, there is more software available for linux, so more software is created for linux.
Does really seem to show much, but the original site /.'d...
google cache
<article text>
Corporate Fallout Detector
The Corporate Fallout Detector reads barcodes off of consumer products, and makes a noise similar to a gieger counter of varying intensity based on the social or environmental record of the company that produces the product.
I came up with the numbers by correlating several online bardcode databases with a pollution database and a corporate ethics database. Of course the data produced by this approach is subjective and inaccurate at times, but that's part of why I built it: It's difficult for consumers trace corporate actions through the maze of corporate ownership, and find who is really responsible. This helps create an environment where consumers have difficulty making informed purchasing decisions.... without the use of "special tools"...
The case is made from a discarded steel computer case, cut on a waterjet cutter and bent with a metal brake. Inside is a SaJe microcontroller and a Wasp barcode scanner.
Click on the thumbnails at left for larger images.
</article text>
So they loose credibility becuase they've worked in the industry?
You're right, this was an unnecessary shot at guys who work in the telcom industry. I am sorry, because I know there are many highly skilled people employed by these companies. I am only bitter because of a few bad experiences, and I should not have attacked everyone.
You rant this info like you're an insider hotshot, but then imply that all insiders are dishonest!
Maybe you misread my comment, I only implied that the executives are dishonest. I don't think that is an unfair thing to imply. Think MCI, Enron, etc. if you think that Utilities executives are honest.
What are YOUR qualifications?
Who cares? I mean really, it is up to you to believe this. Even if I cut/pasted my resume into this reply, I am sure you would nitpick it also. If you think I am unqualified, big deal, this is a forum, not a courtroom. If it was a courtroom, this would be hearsay anyways... However, the person that told me this story did so in confidence, so it might jeopardize his employment with one of the major Baby Bells.
Why should we beleive anything you're telling us, and don't tell me that its an opinion, because thats a "consperacy theory"/"industrial thriller", not a humble opinion.
As I mentioned before, you don't have to... But, if you don't believe this story, just do a few google searches on these topics. I'm sure that you'll find many other similar stories of corporate dishonesty and corruption. If I had the time, I'd look through the past stories on slashdot and find the one that shows how the telecoms greased the FCC to get out of major trouble. Unfortunately, I can't remember the details of the story.
PS. It is 'conspiracy' and 'believe', preview is an amazing thing.
Well, you shouldn't have mentioned that you are a former telcom employee. You lost a lot of credibility with that statement.
;).
First off, I want to clear up a few things about equipment costs that telcoms hide behind. They use this as their way to jack up the rates, because after salary and wage expenses, they really don't have much reason to charge a monthly fee to their customers, so they claim to be constantly upgrading their equipment. The telcoms are sneaky though, equipment works its way from the largest areas down to the rural areas so that they are re-using the same equipment where it is needed, and everyone gets an upgrade. Sounds good right!?
WRONG
The trick is how it goes from one CO to another. Each CO liquidates its old equipment to a holding company for pennies on the dollar. The holding company is usually a seperate entity whose main stakeholders are executives at the telco. The holding company then offers the equipment back to the next CO for its *original* price!!! Think of how much money is generated when just one upgrade works its way through the COs in an area. The telco has had to re-purchase the same equipment over and over again, so then they go to the local PUCO (public utilities commission) and ask if they can raise the price since the upgrade cost so much. When they get it approved it is a double win for them, they are getting more from their residual monthly fee, and they have made an ass-load of cash from their holding company entity.
For Public Utilities, it is all about how to work funny-money through the system, they don't have to worry about pleasing the customer since their is no competition. If you really think that your local telco is out to please/help you, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell ya
This isn't bait and switch... That is when you advertise one thing at a great deal, but then conveniently don't have any of that item in stock when the customers arrive. This was a common practice of Sun TV during the 90s.
Sometimes I wonder why this 'Anonymous Coward' guy is still allowed to post, he is obviously an idiot, and he posts so much!
The article does say
Until now, the Japanese government has relied on expensive large-scale computers for its backbone system.
I would say that it is a fair assumption that it wasn't windows... I mean, when have you known of a 'large-scale' 'backbone' windows system? My guess is that it was probably some [Sun|HP|SGI] based iron running [SAP|PeopleSoft|Oracle]... In which case it will be easy to decrease costs. Moving to M$ would have decreased costs too if I am right, but at any rate, at the risk of sounding redundant this is just another case that can be pointed to when discussing a move to linux.
When are we gonna have an Icon that represents this SCO v IBM crap.
As an end user of successful open source software, I would have to say that the best way to get feedback on the success of your project is through an X-users mailing list where X is your project. It seems to me that the more activity in a mailing list usually indicates the size/success of a project. I have spent time in the past simply lurking on a mailing list for a while for products that I am evaluating, and in other cases, I join the mailing list to lurk right away on desktop software that I am not already familiar with. It is the best measure thusfar that I have found.
If she is your wife she should automatically be a citizen, unless you aren't. I am confused.
Support isn't the only thing you pay for here. I went to a small conference hosted by IBM and RH where they showcased AS and AW. Basically, you get a stable system that will change very little over time. This might not seem like a big deal, but at large organizations like where I work, even the smallest library changes have to be QE'd internally before we can install updates into production. This becomes a real cost monger when you think about QE dealing with our own changes as well as the changes that the open source world makes to its software.
Here, we have a habit of only testing and installing security related fixes. This minimizes the QE workload, but under this model, products get EOL'd pretty quick and then no more support is available. You can end up with an outdated RH system pretty quick. The Advanced series of their software allows us to develop and deploy a system that we know will be supported for a given amount of time, and that the changes made from RH will minor, thus requiring less QE time on our part etc. For our organization, this clearly makes a good case to replace some of our big iron from Sun.
This is just about the dumbest post I have seen in let's see... hmm... EVER!!!!
Comparing ES server at $800 to a 5 CAL copy of Win2k Server is like saying the following:
So what about that $500 Mercedes, my schwinn only cost me $400.
I am sure that any idiot making the above remark would be teased for the rest of his life about his stupidity for passing up such a good deal to get sodomized on another.
You know... You could fix this kind of situation yourself. If you set up a real DNS zone, AOL would have no way of knowing you aren't running a legitimate mailserver. Shell out a few bucks to get a name, then spend a day or two figuring out BIND (or worse WinNT DNS), then viola! You will be doing it correctly!! And who would have thought, when you do it right, ISPs will honor it!
Here is something to think about, at my last job, we ran a very popular piece of software that is used to track and manage student loans for our financial aid department. One of our financial aid reps was having problems with her peecee and I sent out one of our IT support guys who was a full time student and part-time employee. He ended up calling the support desk for the piece of software in question and the rep gave him a backdoor account that was full access right over the phone. Luckily for me, the kid was honest and came back and told us about it. We all had a laugh that such an important piece of software could be compromised so easily and the support rep didn't even think twice about giving info on the backdoor to a student. Just to be safe, I periodically checked that student's account and made sure no phony changes were made. The more I thought about it, the more paranoid I became. I talked to my boss (the IT Director at the college) and found out that we really didn't have any choice in the matter, that piece of software was the only one like it. Thankfully, I don't work there any more, and I don't think the problem was ever exploited, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ever read about it. I won't divulge the information about the backdoor, but I will say that the software in question is called WhizKid and there may be college employees here on Slashdot that are familiar with it.